Posted on 07/20/2008 4:55:08 AM PDT by shrinkermd
Charles Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, is intent on raising $30 million for a new academic center in his New York district -- a center with his name on it. After securing an earmark and two other federal grants totaling some $2.6 million for the project, the Democratic congressman wrote letters on his congressional stationery to businesses with interests before his committee. They sought meetings to help him fulfill his "personal dream" of seeing the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service completed.
...Until roughly the 1960s, people had to die before a grateful nation memorialized them in granite. The Lincoln Memorial wasn't dedicated until a full half century after the Great Emancipator's death. Ditto for Franklin Roosevelt. George Washington had to wait 89 years for his memorial.
Now it seems almost every committee chairman gets some "Monument to Me" named after himself with the tab going to the taxpayer. There's a navigation lock in Pennsylvania named after Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young, the former GOP chair of the House Appropriations Committee. He represents St. Petersburg, Fla. -- his only connection to Pennsylvania is that he happened to be born there. Nor is that Mr. Young's only monument. The C.W. Young Center for Bio-Defense and Emerging Infectious Disease was dedicated at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
"Rep. Campbell says that members of Congress cover for each other when it comes to glory grabs. Last year, the two-term lawmaker objected to an earmark for Mr. Rangel's academic center because "spending taxpayer funds in the creation of things named after ourselves while we're still here" was inappropriate. He was swatted down on a bipartisan 316-108 vote. Mr. Rangel, who has been in office since 1971, dismissed Mr. Campbell's objection: "I would have a problem if you did it, because I don't think that you've been around long enough . . . to inspire a building like this."
Grrrrr....that paragraph ruined my breakfast.. >:(
I call anyone a fool who thinks things come Jan of 09 will be the same.
Anything coming from his mouth is pure sh##. The man is a first class scam artist, extortionist, hypocrit who is allowed like jesse and Al Sharpton to do as they please in the name of color with no repercusions thanks to the daily brainwashing we all recieve from them and thier media friends on racism. Our tax dollars being squandered just to keep them quiet. Are you ok with this? News has it that Charlie has several rent controlled apartments in the city.
Neither Heaven nor Hell will have places named after them.
How many Richard Byrd (KKK - WV) edifices are there?
The practice of building public monuments to “honor” people who are still in office is one of the defining characteristics of a Third World sh!t-hole.
How low of us to accept this.
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